I won't let you die
by A-Sad-Clown
Summary: You can't get hurt in dreams. Never. Even not in nightmares. What if Rudy lived on, but in an other way as you may expect? What if Liesel rescues a boy with hair as black as coal? Please, please read and review! *COMPLETE*
1. Nightmares

**So, here I am again. This story is not a real what if Rudy survived and so on, because (Please don't hate me) I actually like the end of the Book Thief. It's the only one fitting. And dead people becoming alive again? That's not my style.****Sooo, I decided to let Rudy live on. But in an other way as you may expected…  
Please, please tell me what you think about it. Shall I make another chapter or not?**

I won't let you die

Chapter One: Nightmares

Liesel went from one nightmare to the next. Literally.

At first the graveyard.  
The so called _Trauernden_, Black Monsters, drowning her in their heartfelt condolences.

Then the river.  
Standing where Rudy stood, and saying goodbye to him. This _Saukerl_, got his kiss after all. A winner for eternity…

And now the road.  
People everywhere. Liesel tried to make her way, although she felt like a sleepwalker. They all glanced down to her. Strange glances. She felt like a dwarf under giants. Or like the rabbit in front of the snake.

She escaped into a smaller road, needed to breath freely, and leaned against a wall.

The clouds looked painted. Maybe water-colour.

She could imagine the scene clearly.

Max rises one eyebrow.  
"Painted clouds?"  
He smiles and places his cool hand on her forehead.  
"Are you sure you feel fine today, Liesel?"  
And that from a man who painted clouds on basement walls!

If she just could tell him she's not.  
If it just would be reality…

The next nightmare. The Uncertainty.  
Is he alive, is he not.  
She felt like a young girl in love, sitting in the shadow of the trees, fleecing a daisy._  
Er liebt mich, er liebt mich nicht._

The worst of this nightmares was the knowledge of their reality.

She wouldn't wake up screaming in her bed, half an hour to three a.m..  
Papa… Papa wouldn't sit next to her.  
He wouldn't open a book with her, perhaps the Gravedigger's Handbook.  
Nevermore.

_Wake up!_  
Although she knew it wasn't a dream.

You can't get hurt in dreams. Never.  
Even not in nightmares.

It all seemed so peacefully.

Children were playing with _Murmeln_.  
A woman entered a store.  
A boy crossed the street.

Liesel noticed all that, but remained unnoticed.

She was wearing a black dress and Himmel Street's dirt.  
Except her legs.  
She couldn't avoid them from water when she walked into the river.  
Her hair was confused. She tried to pull all the hair slides out Frau Hermann put so carefully in, but failed.  
She could only get the half of her hair free.

She closed her eyes.

Listened to the silence.  
No sirens.

Peace?

No, silence was no peace and never will be, not for Liesel Meminger.

The perfect silence was broken before Liesel opened her eyes again.

The moment was frozen.  
The children, the woman, the boy became frozen to statues.  
The painted clouds hang of the blue frozen sky.

The world stood still. The car did not.

He did not even scream…

The boy lay on the street like a lost doll. Or like a broken football, given to a hidden Jew.  
He lay on the street and leaked.  
His blood painted the asphalt red.

Liesel ran towards the body.

The boy was alive, his breath was heavy.  
His hair was the colour of coal.  
But his eyes were as blue as Rudy's ones. Rudy...

He looked to the kneeling Liesel next to him.

The car stopped. It's driver became a statue, too.  
"I'm sorry… I didn't even see him…", he stammered.  
"Don't just stand there! Call an ambulance!", Liesel screamed.

Maybe she was not shocked because she was already caught in her nightmares, in her own personal hell. An existence on this world without anyone to live for, anyone to love.

She looked back to the boy.

He was about her age.  
But he looked so young.  
So pale…

Another snowman was melting in front of her. To red liquid…

His voice was only a whisper.  
"Please, help… me… I don't want to… die…"

Liesel's words were the last he heard before everything turned black.

Don't worry. I won't let you die. Not you too.


	2. Whom did you let die?

Chapter Two: Whom did you let die?

The corridor was as clean and white as only a hospital could be.  
Clean and white and cold.

Liesel stood in front of door number 13. Looked at the white and clean and cold wood.  
Black numbers were wounding it. It bleed.

Slowly Liesel rose her hand. Placed it on the cold flesh of the door. She took a deep breath before she knocked. Three times.

"_Herein."_

Liesel opened. The room was small.  
There was only place for a desk, a chair and a lonely bed with a lonely boy in it.

He looked up when Liesel came in, and smiled.

Black hair, blue eyes, skin as white as everything in the hospital.

"_Hallo_", he said.  
"_Hallo"_, Liesel answered.

She stretched her hand, in his direction.

"Liesel. Liesel Meminger."

He took it.

"My name is Rudy Schneider."

Rudy…

"Oh."  
Liesel had to sit down.

"Have you never heard _Rudy _before?", asked Rudy, amused.

"_Doch. _I did."_  
Too many times.  
I wish I never had. _

"You are the one who saved my life."  
Liesel looked up. Rudy was smiling.

"I remember you."  
"_Unsinn._ I just asked a man to call the ambulance."

"A few minutes more and I wouldn't live anymore. I owe you my life."  
"You owe me nothing."  
"Yes I do", said Rudy, but very quietly.

A few minutes, perhaps as long as Rudy would have survived without the ambulance, both remained silent.

"There's something which don't leave my mind…"

Rudy spoke again. _Listen to him, Liesel._

"… something you said before I lost consciousness. Something I don't understand…"

"_Was denn?"_

Rudy spoke to the blanket now.

"You said you won't let me die. Not me too…"

He looked into her eyes now.

"Whom did you let die?"

Liesel counted them. Silently.

They were all standing outside. At the window.

Max stood at the right. His back leaned against the glass. He glanced over his shoulder to her.  
The place at the left side was given to her brother, her mother and the father she'd never known.  
The man Liesel called her Papa was standing in the middle, his wife and the real Rudy, the one with the lemon hair, next to him. He was smoking a cigarette, and smiled.  
They were all smiling. The land of Death seemed to be a happy place.

"Liesel?"

She almost forgot the piece of coal next to her.

She didn't look at him when she spoke.

"You have to be mistaken. I didn't say anything like this."

She was far, far away when she said this.  
Rudy noticed that. And he wanted to bring her back. So he talked.

"I heard you're living at the mayor's house. Is he your Papa?"

_Mein Papa ist tot._

The sentence sounded unreal in her ears, although she didn't say it now.  
She heard it often enough in her mind. She said it too often, to herself, in all the sleepless lonely nights. Waiting for him.

_Er kommt. Bestimmt._  
I will awake and everything was just a bad dream. And he will sit next to me. He will come._  
Nein, er kommt nicht. Nie mehr._

_Mein Papa ist tot…_

"He is not.", she said to Rudy, looking out the window.

"Why are you living at his house then?"

It was snowing outside. Why were the snowflakes burning?

Liesel didn't answer.

"Liesel?"  
"I don't want to talk about it."  
"Are you all right?"  
"I don't want to talk about it, _Saukerl_!"

Liesel was shocked about herself. Had she really called a stranger _Saukerl_?

"_Wie bitte?"_

Rudy wasn't understanding anything.

Liesel stood up.

"_Tut mir leid. _I'm sorry. I think I should go home now."

_Which home?__  
Tell me, Liesel, where are you going?  
To the mayor's house? This is not your home, never will be, and you know that.  
The people who were your home are dead.  
And the place you called home is a pile of ash.  
Where are you going, Liesel?_

_Shut up._

She left.

It wasn't snowing anymore.  
But there was a long cloud like a rope, and she remembered how she danced on it, together with Max.  
He was there, on the cloud, but he wasn't alone.

All the people Liesel loved were sitting there, all were waving, all were smiling, and all of them were dead.


	3. Books and Covers

**Ok, this is version two. I made a few changes.**

**The whole slap-on-the-finger- and dictionary-thing isn't meant literally. I'm sure you'll get the meaning.  
Oh, and to llama: Why do you think this story confusing?  
**

Chapter three: Books and Covers

You know what they say about books and covers, don't you?

They say, that a cover doesn't tell you about the words behind.  
They say, that the look is a deceptive thing and that the truth likes to hide.

Liesel's situation was much alike.

Once again, the Book Thief did her job.  
Once more.  
A book with a cover made of milk-white skin, blue eyes and hair like coal.

She didn't open it at once.  
She had to remind herself how to read.  
And she did.

The result was the life of Rudy.  
The piece of coal, how she called him loving.

He had lived in Rostock, together with his mother and his younger sister Caroline. Like Liesel he'd never known his father.  
His mother became very ill, so she had to go to hospital, and couldn't keep the children.  
Caroline was sent to her aunt in Cologne, but Rudy was told to live at his grandparents' house in Molching.

Too bad for Liesel she had lost her dictionary. Otherwise she would have known, that some words have many meanings…

But time passed, without any thought of Liesel in this direction.  
She was to busy to read in her new book.

She talked and talked with Rudy about his life, but every time he wanted to read in her, she slapped his fingers.

She didn't tell him a word of her books, the books she once had.  
The people she had loved.  
The street she had lived on.  
The stories she had known.  
And what happened to them.

But one time she noticed.

Every word in Rudy's book was a lie.

It was grey and cold, this afternoon.  
Stormy. Uncomfortably.  
Liesel and Rudy walked down a street when a voice reached them. A question. A single word. It needn't more.

"Jonathan?"

Rudy stopped. Looked back.  
A boy was standing perhaps 50 meters away from them.  
He repeated his question.

"Jonathan?"

Rudy became as white as snow. He moved on, quickly.  
He fled.

"Jonathan!"

One word is enough.

"Jonathan!"

One word is completely enough.

"Jonathan! Jonathan Richter! Stop! Damn it, stop!"

One word is enough to destroy your life.

Rudy didn't stopped. Until the boy caught him.

"Damn it, Jonathan!", he panted, "Why the hell are you running away?"  
"Do we know us?", asked Rudy. His skills as actor wasn't that good.  
"Yeah, we do! Don't you remember me? It's me! Friedrich!"

The pain was like a needle in Liesel's heart.

_Is it really you?_

_Yes, it's me, Liesel.  
It's me._

Those words seemed to bring bad luck wherever they were spoken.

"I don't know you. Please, let me go!"  
Rudy's voice was desperately. The boy had gripped his arm.

"Of course you know me! I lived next door to you, in Frankfurt! Jonathan! What the hell is up with you?"  
"I've never been in Frankfurt. Please…"  
Rudy almost cried.

Friedrich knew no mercy.

"Of course you have! Together with your mother and your sister, what was her name? Mathilda, right? But then you were gone one day, without a word! There were rumours that you escaped to Switzerland but I always thought they got you like the rest of the J…"

"Friedrich, please shut up!"  
Rudy's voice was not more than a whisper.  
And it made Friedrich shut up.

"You have to believe me, the family really escaped to Switzerland, I've never been in Frankfurt and my sisters name is not Mathilda but Caroline."  
He looked straight into Friedrich's eyes.

"I am not Jonathan Richter."

He draw with his finger a cross on the left side of his chest and shook his head.

And Friedrich seemed to understand.  
"All right", he said loudly, "I'm sorry, I made a mistake."  
He whispered something to his friend before he left.

_Good luck. You'll need it._

Rudy relaxed. He watched his reflection in a shop-window.  
And saw someone else. And he knew she heard every word.

He stared at Liesel.  
She knew it. She knew what he was…

"Please", he begged.  
"Please, don't betray me, Liesel, please…"

"What the hell is going on here? Who was that boy, why is he calling you Jonathan, why is he saying you lived in Frankfurt,  
who are you?"

"It's hard to explain..."

"No, it's not! It's hard to understand! I just need one answer. Are you Rudy or are you not?"

He was watching her, fighting with himself if he should tell her the truth or not.

"I am a liar", he said, looking on his feet.

"That doesn't answer my question!" First reaction.  
"What do you mean you are a liar?" Second one.

"What I said. Almost every word I spoke to you was a lie."

"You did what? You lied to me, all the time? I thought we were friends!"

"We are still friends! Trust me, every lie was for our own safety!"

"How can I ever trust you?", she asked quietly. "How?"

The liar was between two fronts.  
Liesel was his best and only friend, and he didn't want to loose her.  
The other one was his own life.  
If he told her she could betray him.  
But she was his friend...

He made his desicion.

"I am going to tell you the truth."

"Who garantees for this? How can I ever believe you?"

"Believe me, Liesel, only this time. You'll understand me when you heard my story."

Liesel wasn't as sure as he about this but she said no word.  
She would listen to him.  
At least it was worth a try.

Some minutes later a girl and a liar were sitting near to the Amper river.

Finally, the liar began to tell the truth.

"I didn't only lie to you. I lied to the whole world. To myself. I am not who I try to be, Liesel.  
I am not Rudy Schneider. I am not even Jonathan Richter, although I was born as him.  
I am Jonathan the liar."

He took a deep breath. Secrets are heavy.

"The fact is I've never been in Rostock. I was born and raised in Frankfurt. I lived with my mother and my younger sister, Mathilda. But the world didn't want us. It hated us. Our life was the hell on earth.  
We are Jews, Liesel.  
My mother is a Jew and my sister is a Jew and I am a Jew.  
And since 1940 we hid. At different places, with different names. Together or alone. I haven't seen my mother for almost three years now. And Mathilda… Mathilda is little and cute. It was nearly easy to find a place for her. She doesn't look like me, not at all. She hides… God knows where. Netherlands, I suppose. I haven't seen her since almost one year. She's six now. And I couldn't wish her a happy birthday at least. That's not fair. Simply not fair."

What did he think? That life is fair? Not even children are so naiv to believe that.

They remained silent for a few seconds, then he went on.

"Well, and two month ago I had to go to another hiding place. The old couple I call my grandparents. And I got a new name, once more. At October 7 I became Rudy Schneider."

He became Rudy when Rudy died…

Was that chance?  
Destiny?  
Cynisism?

"You understand now?", he asked.

Liesel nodded slowly. She understood.

"Will you tell me your story now?", the liar asked.

Liesel didn't slap his fingers. She took a deep breath.

"I am a reader and I am a writer but most of all I am the Book Thief."


	4. AN: Competition!

**Competition-time!**

**I noticed that some people read this story (even if only a few reviewed. Special thanks to my reviewers ^^).  
So I thought this competition is at least worth a try.  
**

**It's about finding something, a sentence I added to the first chapter, Nightmares.**

**I don't know how carefully you read this story and the sentence is in since Friday, but maybe one is able to find it.  
(Little hint: The sentence is about Max. This should help you. I didn't write much about him in this chapter.)**

**Just review this with the sentence you think it is or write me.  
**

**I will answer everything with a PM, so enable it, otherwise you're not able to take part in the competition, and you have to be a member of , so ****no**** anonymous reviews please!  
Anyway everybody has only one vote.**

**To the most important: ****The Price**

**The winner is who gives the right answer first. Clearly, isn't it?  
He'll / She'll be announced in the next chapter and ****gets an appearience in this story. And a Toast! ^^  
**

**If you win, I'll send you a PM with questions which are important for my writing / your role. Gender, age, looking, character, hobbies, name, anything like this.****  
You are free to lie if you don't want to tell me about you but don't be too abstract, I won't write about a character with green hair or such things.  
****Personally I think it's most fun when you tell me the truth.  
****Anyway I feel free to change names. A Justin for example doesn't fit in Germany in the 20th century, I would call him maybe Julius instead.  
Accept this or not.**

**So guys, it's up to you now.****  
Fast result, fast new chapter.**

**I am waiting for your votes!**

**~Ankticookie**


	5. Imagine

**And the winner is ... KLUTZY-BUT-CUTE!  
****And a special thanks to the Obsessive Bookworm for taking part xD  
Applause, please!**

Chapter 4: Imagine

Don't worry, there are just a few scenes I want to show you.

Imagine a cold day in January 1944.

You see a street, covered with snow and mud.  
There are houses on each side of it.  
Two old people are standing in front of such a house.  
They are threatened by two men in uniforms with guns.  
The men don't look friendly.  
People are on the street, but most of them look away.  
A little body lies on the floor, not far away from the old couple.  
It's a boy and he wears a grey coat, his arms are stretched out wide.  
You can't see his face, you only see his coal-coloured hair.  
The heaven is made of lead.

And the moment you enter, the uniforms shut.

What would you think?  
What would you feel?  
What would you do?

Liesel Meminger thought two things.  
First: _Oh mein Gott._  
Second: _Jonathan?_  
She felt nothing at first. Only the shock.  
And what did she do?

The old people fall.  
The boy lies on the floor.  
He looks so small.  
Jonathan?  
No, it's not Jonathan.  
But Liesel didn't know.

The dead boy was called Sascha.  
Sascha was eleven years old.  
Sascha was a Jew.

He was told to hide at the two old people.  
Unluckily a neighbour saw Sascha entering the house.  
He had never seen Sascha before. So he told _them_.  
And _they _had come.

Five minutes later Sascha lies on the dirty floor of the street.  
His face is buried in the mud.  
His arms are stretched out wide.  
As if he had wanted to fly away.

Sascha is dead.  
Poor, poor Sascha.

Jonathan for himself is in safety.

It's a week later.  
He sits in a warm small room in a house in Stuttgart and eats a soup.  
There's even a window in the room.

Jonathan would like to look out, but he isn't allowed to do so.  
So he doesn't look out.

In the next room a girl is playing the violin.  
Her name is Michaela and she's fourteen years old.

Her family hides him.

Jonathan likes her.  
She is very friendly to him.  
She even tries to teach him how to play chess so that he doesn't get bored so often.

Her family is very small.  
It's just her and her father, Holger Eisenschmidt.  
Probably she had a mother once, but Jonathan doesn't know what happened to her and he doesn't ask.

And while he eats the soup he thinks about a thing nobody knows.

He was there, too.

But he stayed just a second.

*****What he saw:*****

- Two falling people  
- A boy lying in the dirt  
- Two uniforms  
- Guns  
- Liesel Meminger

He left the place as quickly as he came.  
He went to the address the old people told him to go if something like this happens.  
The woman there was friendly but scared.  
She bought a ticket for the train and told him an address to go.

And there he is.

He thinks Liesel had betrayed him.  
Liesel thinks he's dead.

**Sorry, this chapter was a kind of odd :p**


	6. Seven Days

Chapter 6: Seven Days

They weren't much. Just a handful bombs.  
But they were enough to smash Liesel's life into smithereens.

She tried so hard to complete it again, but some of those pieces were so sharp that they cut her fingers every time. It would take them a while until Liesel could remember them without hurt.  
This were especially those which were made of silver eyes, smoke, the sound of an accordion, running, thievery, lemon hair and a liar.

Yes, the liar had been a part of her life, he had been her best friend after the bombing, and he was the one who helped her to finish the puzzle of her life.

But then she saw him lying on the street. Dead…  
And she was alone again.

It's strange, how life plays sometimes.

So Frau Hermann decided, that it would be good for Liesel not to stay only in Molching and become even more sadder than she already was. She decided her to go on holiday. To Ilsa's sister.  
Guess where.

And so Herr Eisenschmidt decided that Jonathan would die of lack of fresh air and sunlight. He decided to risk it.  
Jonathan was now called his nephew and allowed to go on street. At least for an hour a day.

And so the Book Thief and the liar met, strangely, in the million town of Stuttgart, without planning it.

That sounds unrealistic, doesn't it? But it happened.  
Sometimes fairytales become true.

It was much alike to the situation almost four month ago.  
Liesel was walking down the street. Lonely.  
And then she saw his black hair, just a few meters away.

At first she thought it would be a hallucination.  
She went to him and tipped his shoulder.  
"Jonathan?"  
And he turned around.  
"Liesel?"

They spent a second staring at each other, wondering what the other one was doing here.

Jonathan wasn't glad to see her.  
Liesel was.

She hugged him.  
He pushed her away.

She looked at his face. It wasn't friendly.

"Jonathan, what's wrong?"  
"What's wrong? You tried to kill me, that's wrong!"

It took all his strength not to lose his self-control.

"I tried to kill you? Never! How could I! I thought you were dead!"

It take almost an hour for them to explain the case.

But Jonathan didn't believe her.  
"How can I ever trust you? You broke your promise…"

_I won't let you die._

"You thought me dead. You let me die."  
He shoot her. With his words.  
"You broke a promise! And you expect me to believe you? Why shouldn't you brake this promise, too? Can you tell me, Liesel?"

Liesel's voice was very, very quietly.

"Because…"  
"Because what?"  
"Because I really like you…"

This words were spoken very seriously.  
And they made Jonathan speechless for a while.

But then he went on.  
"You? Like me? You disappoint me, Liesel. Don't you have a better excuse?"

But he believed her when he saw the tears she cried after hearing this.

Liesel wasn't a girl crying easily, but it was all too much for her.  
She really liked him.

She sat down on some steps.  
He sat next to her.  
"I'm sorry."  
Liesel nodded.  
"Me too."

And then they sat on the steps of a stranger until sundown.

They had seven days together.  
Then Liesel had to go back to Molching.

The goodbye was very heavy. No-one said a word.  
Until Liesel had to enter the train.

Jonathan spoke.  
"We will meet again, Liesel. After the war. I'll find you."

Liesel smiled tormented.  
Her trust in promises wasn't that big anymore.

She entered the train and leaned out of a window to say him goodbye.

"See you soon", she said. It was more like a question.  
"Of course", he answered.

"Ehm, Liesel?""Yes?"

Her heart beat like it would be going to explode.

"Take care of yourself."

She nodded, a bit disappointed.

"And Liesel?"

"What?"

"I like you too."

And then he kissed her.  
It wasn't such a perfect kiss you always dream of. Just a short meeting of their lips. Not very passionate.

The train started to move.

Jonathan ran along with it until it became too fast.  
Liesel waved until he disappeared, but still then she heard his last words in her mind.

_Wait for me._

And Liesel did.

Spring became summer became autumn became winter became spring.

The war ended, but Liesel kept waiting.

Days became weeks.  
Weeks became months.  
Months became years.

And Jonathan didn't come.

The reason was a girl.

*****The girl's name*****

Mathilda


	7. Mathilda

**This may be short, but I wanted to have it as a single chapter. You'll see why.**

Chapter 7: Mathilda

Yes, I know her.  
Come with me, and I'll show you what happened to her. It will help you to understand why her brother took so long.

The room is crowded with people.  
There are children and women, and a little girl between them.

She is dirty. She is skinny. She is tired. She is far away from home.  
She is all alone.  
Please, don't look away.

I enter the room. Stand next to her.  
Only she notices me.

She knows who I am.  
She knows why I came.  
And she knows, there is no escape.

The human child…

She wants to ask me so many questions, but there's no time.  
She decides for the most important one:

_Have you seen my brother yet?_

I shake my head.  
And she smiles.

Then the people in front of her start screaming…

She dies quickly. At least that.  
At least that.

I would caught her up, if there would be any space for her to fall.

Together with the rest of the souls we leave the room.  
And it's such a beautiful day…

The children lie in my arms.  
A few of them are looking back.  
Most are looking forward.  
To heaven.

Mathilda's soul does none of that.  
She lies in my arms and rests.

I look down to her. And that's one of the most beautiful things I ever saw.

Her head is leaned to my chest.  
Her fine, light blonde, smooth hair is shimmering in the sunlight.  
Her blue eyes are closed.  
Her skin is as white as porcelain.  
She looks like a lost angel.

She whispers the pet name of her brother.

_Thani._

She smiles and she cries.

You want to know what killed her? I'll tell you.  
Treblinka.


	8. For Elise

Final Chapter: For Elise

The roses are yet a little wilted when the girl lies them down on the grave.

It feels like surrendering.  
She hates that. To feel so damn helpless.

_His death is not your fault._  
Of course it's not. But this doesn't make it better, does it?  
It doesn't bring him back to live.

It's a nice day.  
The birds sing, the sun shines, a blue wide sky, no cloud to see…  
Marvellous.

_Es ist so ein schöner Tag.  
Ein großartiger Tag um zu sterben. Ein großartiger Tag um zu sterben, einfach so._

But the girl doesn't think of that when she reminds him.  
She remembers his music, especially the song they both liked most._  
For Elise._

When she heard him playing this for the first time, she felt like he would give the song to her as a present, every single note.  
Not only the Book Thief got music like this.

He played and smiled and didn't even need to look on the keys.  
Show-off.

"_For Elise_", he said when she asked for the title and smiled even a little more.  
And the sun only shined for her this day, For Elise.

The melody seems to lie in the air.  
It fills the whole graveyard, although only the girl hears it.  
Silent music.

A tear runs down her cheek.  
Her hands are shaking.  
She weeps without a sound.

She holds on to herself.

In the shadow of the trees her memories live on.

She watches them and thinks of the time they shared.  
Lucky time.  
Precious time.

She also thinks of her mother lying grey and tired in her hospital bed, and her brothers, two years older than her, and the stranger ringing their bell two weeks ago to turn their lives upside down and whose grave is not far away.

He claimed to be an old friend of mother's and had a talk with her in the kitchen, while the children and Papa remained sitting in the living room.  
Their voices became louder and louder and Papa's hands began to shake until he finally stood up and turned the stranger out and they shifted their talk on the street, and Mama, Papa and the stranger stood there and then – and then –

The girl likes to think of her father pushing her mother out of the way before the car reaches them.  
She likes to think of him as a man who protected his wife and died for her.  
_As a hero_.

But she doesn't know what happened really. She only knows that everything was too late when she and her brothers approached on the street.

The stranger and their father lay on the street and their mother screamed and cried and shook them and the car driver became stone.  
And it was so terrible red…

Her mother was brought to hospital.  
Light injuries and a shock, the doctor said. And yet, she isn't discharged.

She hardly speaks a word when her daughter visits her. She looks out of the window and remains silent. She doesn't tell her anything. Neither about the accident nor about the stranger.

The strong woman the girl had known is now only a shadow of herself.

She is broken, deep inside.  
Smashed into smithereens.  
Toren apart.

_Was weißt du schon_, she said one time, _was weißt du denn schon davon, wie es ist, die Liebe deines Lebens gleich drei mal zu verlieren?_

What do you know of losing the love of your life three times?

And Elise remains alone with a tear running down her face while her memories and her father's music fade in the shadow of a weeping willow and the velvet dark red roses die.

The End

**I know I took long, and I'm sorry, but finding an end wasn't that easy.  
So, thank you for reading so far, thanks for all reviews and for those to come.  
I would be really, really glad if you would tell me your opinion about that.  
In hope of a few new stories by me coming**

**Ankticookie  
**


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